Recently, I was
building the blanket chest that was featured in the April issue of Workbench.
When it came time to make the thick, tapered legs, I needed a way to make a long,
angled cut quickly and accurately. But I also wanted to make sure the taper on
both legs ended up identical. So, I made a simple taper jig. The jig makes it
easy to position the leg at the correct angle and hold it in place during the
cut (see photo).

The jig is nothing more than a plywood base with two support blocks. The base
acts like a "sled" that carries the leg through the saw blade. A couple of hold-downs
attached to the long support block prevent the leg from shifting.

To build the jig, start by ripping a piece of plywood for the base. The ripped
edge will serve as a reference to indicate the path of the saw blade. This same
reference edge can be used to align the leg on the base and help locate the support
blocks.

To position the support blocks, lay out the width of the leg at the top end, then
align this mark with the reference edge on the base of the jig. Next, position
the bottom outside corner of the leg flush with the reference edge and trace the
outline of the leg onto the base (Fig. 1). Then screw down the support blocks
along the layout lines and add the hold-downs (Fig. 2).

Now to use the jig, simply push it through the saw blade along the reference edge
to cut a taper on each leg.